Now a film on Saina Nehwal ?

Dec 23, 2012, 12.00AM ISTTNN[ Anjali Chandra ]

Sania Nehwal

If there's one word that characterises Saina Nehwal, on court and off it, it must be composed. But the normally unflappable badminton star sounded as if the volley of criticism being directed at her was finally getting under her skin. Be it the brickbats directed after her poor performance during the BWF World Super Series finals in Shenzhen, China, or allusions to lure of the lucre by a section of the media in Lucknow when she agreed to participate in the ongoing Syed Modi International India Grand Prix championship, or even the loud grumblings from the Badminton Association Of India when she begged off from the game midway citing twinges from a knee injury, allegedly a few moments before victory, Saina has been at the receiving end in the past few days.

Not surprisingly then, Saina was in no mood to hold back when we caught up with her a day after the tournament. The player was in Lucknow in connection with the Syed Modi Trophy and also to attend the function with a corporate major that announced its association with her. "I play at the highest level, you know. It's not easy. And why would I not compete in India if I could. But as a sportsperson I have to respect my body. I'm not a machine... I can't play all six days. Frankly, even before I began the competition I knew it was going to happen (the knee injury acting up) and I was not very happy about getting down into the court. But that's the rule, you have to play... " was how she explained her position.

A rueful Saina continued, "I have changed the scene of badminton in India. Now, everybody knows about it and is showing an interest. But any player doing well cannot be pushed like this. There are other players too of the game and I feel they have tremendous scope. Their talent should be encouraged too."

At the same time the ace player agrees that at the heart of the issue is the sheer plethora of badminton tournaments being organised nowadays all over the world. "You see the scheduling of the matches, there are simply too many tournaments. The season has become very hectic and at times we are just so tired." Badminton going the cricket way? Too soon to say that!

On the whole, 2012 has been good to Saina, And while the challenges for the next year are already clear to her, there are opportunities too. And among the most exciting could well be a biopic based on her. While both Saina and her sports management representatives insist that it's early days yet, Saina did confirm that her representatives have received a call from a filmmaker to make a film on her. "Yes, I was told by my people that someone is interested in making a film on me. But there's going to be nothing happening, at least for the next two months, because I am busy with tournaments. And for any such project I will be required to put in a lot of my own time as well to iron out the kinks. But frankly, a film on a sportperson is the best thing that could happen to the sport. Hum logon ki life mein kaafi masala already hota hai. Through a film people can draw an emotional connect with the sport. They get to see the sweat and the toil behind the name."

As for who would she like to see playing her, Saina was predictably non-committal, stopping only to say, "I feel all the girls in the industry these days are a reasonably fit lot, be it Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone or the rest. Maybe Deepika will be a natural choice since she knows the game also. But frankly what the film will do, if and when it does get made, is draw people to the game, which is something I am consistently striving for. I want to popularise badminton even more in India and a film will serve the purpose very well."